Seems the Washington press think there are ONLY a handful of people – a select few -who can have answers, solutions or opinions about anything…and they call upon these people time and again to tell the rest of US:

HOW things should be done

WHY things should be done

WHERE things should be done and

WHEN things should be done.

One of these KNOWLEDGEABLE people is former Vice President Dick Cheney.

I think Cheney is really a Kardashian. Except instead of see-through tops, he wears see-through ideology! I mean, he’s as hungry and eager for the spotlight as any Kardashian – and he will do or say ANYTHING to get in the limelight. Here is one EGOmaniac who will NOT go away quietly – or EVER!

Dick “the Missing” Kardashian

Say what you will about George W. Bush or the elder Bush, they’ve gone away quietly. I admire their graciousness in this regard. Cheney will die – and minutes after his burial – he will be staggering up and down the Washington Mall, chains dragging, looking for some reporter to take a statement. Like we really want to know WHAT hell is like!

Does Dick (darn, his momma named him well) Cheney have nobody, no-one in his circle who can suggest he shuts up! I mean he’s NO Colin Powell. Now here’s a republican I can tolerate…that most people will tolerate. Cheney, good god! (as in Cheney thinks he’s a god). I personally don’t think he deserves a capital G…

So the Veep Wonder was on TV (ABC – 6/22/2014) AGAIN, talking about Iraq. Cheney is criticizing the President for Obama’s stance on Iraq. Host, JONATHAN KARL asked Cheney what HE would do about Iraq and he said, quote:

“I’d recognize that Iraq is not the whole problem. We’ve got a much bigger problem than just the current crisis in Iraq.

The Rand Corporation was out within the last week with a report that showed that there’s been a 58 percent increase in the number of groups like al Qaeda, Salafi jihadists. And it stretches from West Africa all across North Africa, East Africa, through the Middle East, all the way around to Indonesia, a doubling of the number of terrorists out there.

The first thing we have to do is recognize we’ve got a hell of a problem and it’s not just in Iraq. I worry about Pakistan. Just a couple of weeks ago in Pakistan, the Taliban, the same group that we just released five of the leaders from Guantanamo, the Taliban raided Karachi Airport.

Karachi airport after Taliban raid 6/10/2014

Why do I care about that?

Well, Pakistan is unique in that it has a significant inventory of nuclear weapons. We have evidence that the man who built the Pakistani program, AQ Khan, offered up recently and that was that the North Koreans have bribed Pakistani officials for sophisticated technology for enriching uranium and that the North Koreans now have some two — 2,000 centrifuges operating to enrich uranium.

We had North Korea try to provide Syria with a nuclear reactor.

The — the difficulty, the spread of the terrorist organizations is not recognized by the administration. The proliferation of nuclear capability and the possibility that it could fall into the hands of terrorists is not really being addressed at all.

And I appreciate the problems we’ve got in Iraq right now…

…But what I think we need is a broad strategy that lets us address this whole range of issues. And that involves reversing a number of the policies of…the Obama administration.

Host, JONATHAN KARL asked Cheney AGAIN:But let me — let me ask you specifically on Iraq, because that — that’s the crisis confronting us right at this moment.

Would you in — would you take war — you know, air strikes against ISIS? (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria…OR…Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

CHENEY: Well, I — what we should have done in Iraq was…

KARL: No, no, what would you do now?

Kurdish fighter battling ISIL near Kurd border. Don’t forget the Kurds – the third part of that equation!

CHENEY: — leave behind a force — well, what I would do now, John, is, among other things, be realistic about the nature of the threat. When we’re arguing over 300 advisers when the request had been for 20,000 in order to do the job right, I’m not sure we’ve really addressed the problem.

I would definitely be helping the resistance up in Syria, in ISIS’ backyard, with training and weapons and so forth, in order to be able to do a more effective job on that end of the party.

But I think at this point, there are no good, easy answers in Iraq. And, again, I think it’s very important to emphasize that the problem we’re faced with is a much broader one, that we need to — an administration to recognize the fact that we’ve got this huge problem, quit peddling the notion that they — they got core al Qaeda and therefore there’s no problem out there…They’ve got to rebuild trust and relationship with our friends in the region…It’s very important to take a broad gauge approach to it.

Let’s break down Cheney’s answer – because it is way too simple for liberals to understand unless one DECONSTRUCTS his wisdom. So Cheney would:

Have left a force behind. How long for – ask him! Ask him too about his TENSE. What would you do NOW, as in the PRESENT…but then Cheney CAN’T differentiate between past and present – which is why he still thinks HE is running the country!

Be realistic about the nature of the threat. The White House thinks ISIS is a game with a pretend Egyptian invasion.

Instead of arguing over 300 advisers (when the request had been for 20,000 in order to do the job right), let’s just wait until Mr. Cheney IS sure, then perhaps we’ll know if he wants to send 300, 33-hundred or 23-thousand to ADDRESS the problem.

HE would definitely be helping the resistance up in Syria with training and weapons and so forth. Bravo Mr. Cheney. Now that’s decisive. Training – OK. Weapons – OK. So forth? Is that wriggle room, Mr. Cheney, for things like No-Bid Contracts for your cronies and companies you make lots of money from? Like Halliburton perhaps?

He admits there are NO good, easy answers in Iraq. You don’t say!

He wants the administration to recognize that we’ve got this huge problem. Did you know that we’ve got a huge problem in Iraq? Do you think perhaps we should TELL the White House about this big problem in Iraq?

Cheney would quit peddling the notion that the U.S. got core al Qaeda and therefore there’s no problem out there. Would THAT be before or after he said (about Iraq): “And I think they’re in the — in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency”… OR “Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region”.

ISIL fighters round up the Iraqi Security forces we spent MILLIONS to train. The Iraqi forces either ran away, gave up or were ineffective. Great use of taxpayer dollars, Mr. Cheney! Money for more police in America? – nah, big government!

Cheney just did not realize to WHOM those benefits would go. Surely these benefits are NOT going to American taxpayers or the soldiers who return with PTSD or their families or to the U.S. economy or to the millions of refugees fleeing their homes in Iraq and Syria. Or does last throes mean to him: just beginning to arise?

If the U.S. bombs ISIL, America comes across as anti-Sunni — and if America moves too openly against Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, the unsatisfactory Nuri al-Maliki, then it is seen as anti-Shiite. WHICH side does Cheney want us to support? On which side does he see America coming out a winner? When he looks through HIS looking glass, where does it foretell a VICTORY? I suppose it would be whichever one can ensure his interests in Halliburton keep bearing juicy oil dividends?

Now I know Cheney is wrong, always thought he was wrong (and maybe you thought so too) but when his very OWN republican colleague – and a likely front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016 (Rand Paul) says:

Rand Paul – not in step with fellow republican Dick Cheney.

“Many of those clamoring for military action now are the same people who made every false assumption imaginable about the cost, challenge and purpose of the Iraq War. They have been wrong for so long, why should we listen to him — listen to them again?”

…don’t you think it is time, BEYOND time, for Dick Kardashian, spotlight hogger, limelight chaser and attentionaholic – to get the hint. Pssst: Cheney! How much clearer can Paul get? Pack up! Go away! Shut up! IRRELEVANT!!!

Colin Powell called it about Iraq – when he said: If we break it, we own it! Except NOW we don’t want it!

Today a force of militants calling themselves the Islamic State of Iraqand Syria (ISIS) is nearing Baghdad, after marching across Iraq like a plague of locusts, destroying all opposition in it’s path. Al Queda is afraid of them – does that make you nervous?

Isis — Egyptian goddess – friend to the downtrodden. The name means: throne! Married her brother Osiris – and used her magic to restore his life after his body parts were scattered across the world. Symbolic, yes?

I am as outraged today as I was in 2003 when U.S. King George II (Bush the Younger) bombed Iraq. I still don’t understand WHY America invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein. I know of all the given reasons: U.S. gas and oil-guzzling interests; revenge for a slight to the president’s father (U.S King George the First) or Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMDs). But I still don’t get it…Why? Why, why?

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Now Republicans – look back and tell me Iraq and the Middle East were NOT more stable with Saddam in power?

Naturally republicans are blaming Obama – because he withdrew US troops, took them out of a situation they could NOT win. We should have left them to be blown up to bits every day -to return home with missing limbs and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) the Veteran’s Administration is now faking it treated! Iraq today is NOT all about Obama and his choices. Obama had to treat an outbreak amid a republican-induced epidemic! Right or wrong, neither choice (leave troops/pull troops) could fix Iraq…just delay the inevitable.

If only republicans would say: “Gosh we messed up big time by invading Iraq, but pulling troops out did not help either”. OK, I’d buy that. But they ALL blame Obama, like what they did was working so well: Every Iraqi was overjoyed with the overthrow of the Saddam regime; the Sunnis were happy, the Shiites were content, the Kurds up north were waving the Iraqi flag and neighboring countries were in raptures! It was one big happy family holding July 4 barbecues; the surge was surging until Obama came along and blew all that hard work (or piece of pie as Republicans probably see it) by sending the troops home!

TEXAS Republican Michael McCaul, Chair of House Committee on Homeland Security, is on TV Sunday morning (6/15) urging the U.S. BACK into Iraq and blaming Obama for the debacle in Iraq. HE DOES NOT SEE THAT THERE WOULD BE NO ISIS WITHOUT THE REPUBLICAN GENERATED PSEUDO SCENARIO THEY SOLD TO GULLIBLE AMERICANS FOR THE GOP’s IMMORAL INVASION OF A COUNTRY THAT WAS NO THREAT. Naturally, send the troops back – and ISIS will just give up. Syria will be magically mended; Iran will stop enriching Uranium…and Israel will no longer want to bomb any of these countries. Magic…

Texas Republican Michael McCaul

So republicans want US troops back in Iraq? How about them giving their kids a crash course in Terrorism 101 and sending their pampered offspring to Iraq to face the invading ISIS jihadists? Pull their kids out of their fancy schools and well-paying jobs, give them body armor that is deficient and send them off to Iraq!

And until then, please DON’T ask more mostly poor and disenfranchised kids to lay down their lives for your misguided ideological nonsense. Until every Senator and every Representative is willing to don fatigues and go to Iraq, they need to STOP sending other people’s kids/loved ones to get blown by homemade bombs then return to a broken and underfunded Veteran’s Administration.

Eric Cantor

So House MAJORITY Leader, Virginia Republican Eric Cantor lost his reelection bid. Great. They ALL need to lose. House speaker John Boehner should be next…

Lesson for Democrats: Gerrymandering does NOT work! (Not that democrats will listen to no-trust-fund insignificant ME, who can’t afford to pay $50-thousand for a plate of food OR $100-thousand if I brought my son!) However, Listen up Democrats: gerrymandering – creating ideological districts that you think will benefit you – DOES NOT WORK in the long run AND MAY NOT WORK THE WAY YOU THINK IT WILL!

The best district is one where there is an ebb and flow. It is a MIX of ideology, thought, feeling, support, demographics and party loyalty. It is one where people vote for a Republican today but can also vote for a Democrat tomorrow. It is one where the Representative can vote on a popular issue or one he believes IN, even if some constituents DO NOT; a vote that may be in the interest of the country but not necessarily in the best interest of that district OR political party…a district where the majority of a DIVERSE view counts more than the narrow, petty view of a minority.

Gerrymandering by Republicans (Democrats Beware – you do it too!)

Republicans are sowing the seeds of the gerrymandering districts they created JUST TO CONTROL THE HOUSE. Well you control it now. Nice feeling ain’t it? You created lily-white districts where immigration is not an issue for them. So even though many states and major U.S. cities are reeling from the effects of unchecked immigration, even if farmers and many other industries are dependent on immigrant labor, even if the LEGAL immigration system is inadequate, even if the current impasse on immigration is allowing millions of UNDOCUMENTED workers to remain in the shadows, so what? Doesn’t affect me – don’t care!

Well, here’s the scenario facing the GOP:

Republicans will NEVER win the majority of Hispanic voters with their stand on Immigration. For nearly EVERY Hispanic who can vote, he/she knows of, loves or has a family member WHO IS UNDOCUMENTED and is depending on Immigration Reform to get that person legalized. Hispanics are not PRO Immigration Reform for noble or ideological reasons – they support it because they want their mother, father, uncle, cousin, lover, spouse, best friend, relative, neighbor to BE LEGAL!

Anti-Immigrant Rally

Anti-immigration

That holds true for voters from OTHER immigrant groups. Asians are another large voting bloc that is tied to Immigration Reform. Do Republicans realize the number of Vietnamese, Chinese, Koreans, Philippinos and other nationalities like Haitians, Jamaicans/English Caribbean, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Indians etc who are HERE in the US with similar desires/reasons for Immigration Reform?

What would Jesus do? Tea Party talked to Jesus and he told them in an exclusive: “I’d be merciless!”

The Tea Party is NOT, repeat NOT popular nationally. How can it be, when we just heard that Cantor also lost in part because he supported the move to compromise on the Government Shutdown. The Tea Party STILL thinks that the government SHOULD HAVE REMAINED CLOSED UNTIL THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED. STILL think this is the way to go when America came so CLOSE to the brink of economic, social and political disaster. Yet, they want a repeat – and beyond a repeat, they want the system to crash so they can remake it in their image.

Republicans deserve this debacle because they are afraid to kick the Tea Party out. KICK THEM OUT! Take the next 4 years to rebuild and rebrand. Pass Immigration Reform – DON’T push the president to take matters into his own hands. Compromise, roll your sleeves, get working IN THE INTEREST OF THE COUNTRY instead of preserving what works for you and your party. What’s best for any one party may not necessarily be best for America. Think slavery!

Choose a speaker with guts/cahones who is vested in moving the country (not his career) forward. Because the harder Boehner tries to protect his job and the more he sells his soul to do that, the more the job slips AWAY from him. Trying to please EVERYBODY never works.

Still, maybe the Tea Party win in Virginia will make some “genuine” Republicans step up and say: “Enough. I’m not sending this uncompromising guy to Washington…I want someone who will NOT shut the government down, someone who will cross the aisle, someone who is willing to meet democrats halfway and even sometimes three-quarters of the way, instead of someone who is doggedly holding his ground even when that ground is slipping into the ocean”.

John Boehner

John Boehner is one of the worst House Speakers. To me he’s even worse than Newt Gingrich. At least with Gingrich there was the “Contract With America”. With Boehner there’s what? Crying, I guess… Ironically, Boehner was part of the Republican posse who gave Gingrich the ultimatum: “Resign – or be voted out!” Live by the sword, die by the sword. Well Boehner: Resign or be voted out! Which one…?

Crying works for some people – but won’t work for you Boehner. Now if Michelle Bachman started crying…(don’t say it. Please don’t. Thanks…)

Since our two-party system makes provision for a Republican to also run in the race for President of America, shouldn’t that Republican BE Condoleezza Rice?

Condi versus Obama.

Former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice addresses the 2012 Republican National Convention.

The Republicans don’t KNOW a good thing when they have it – the black male “rock star” president vs. the black female “rock star” former Secretary of State! And NOT just any female either, this is a woman who comes from the face of segregated America: Birmingham, Alabama.

Republicans should have gone in droves to Condoleezza Rice and begged, threatened, cajoled, seduced, threatened — maybe even sent former Vice President Dick Cheney to FORCE Rice to be their nominee. They could have with one GO broken the perception that they are racist, dismissed the notion that the reason so many of them hate Obama is because he is black and just sucked in the female vote. Va-va-vroom…

But NO. They had to go with the anti-Condoleezza. Pass on spicy for bland…

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell who served BEFORE Rice.

Can you envision a debate between Barak Obama and Condoleezza Rice? WHO would NOT watch? The WORLD would watch…

Republicans could have bagged Colin Powell. But NO. Condi and Powell DO NOT SIT WELL WITH the racist Tea Party arm now controlling the Republican Party.

Let us look at Condoleezza Rice’s speech to the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa/Florida August 29. All you’re getting is Ryan’s FLUFF shoved down your throat!

Rice starts by saying:

“We gather here at a time of significance and challenge. This young century has been a difficult one…

(She refers to 9-11 then adds) “From that day on…our sense of vulnerability and our concepts of security were never the same again.

Then, in 2008, the global financial and economic crisis would stun us. And it still reverberates as we deal with unemployment and economic uncertainty and bad policies that cast a pall over an American economy and a recovery that is desperately needed at home and abroad.

Economy crashes – 2008, SAME year Obama takes office. It’s HIS fault.

(She goes on to refer to developments in the Middle East and what America should do about Syria and Iran) “Russia and China prevent a response, and everyone asks, where does America stand?”

So far I agree with everything she’s said.

America’s sense of vulnerability and our concepts of security will NEVER be the same again.

The financial crisis did NOT stun me because anyone with an ounce of sense could foresee this coming. Some people were warning and urging caution.

YES! We are still reverberating from the massive job losses and economic uncertainty that started under Republican rule with former President George W. Bush’s wars and tax cuts…and other bad policies. These policies cast a pall over America’s economy and the recovery that is desperately needed at home and abroad.

And yes. Russia and China are blocking American intervention.

Condi says the world is asking: “Where does America stand? Since world war II, the United States has had an answer to that question. We stand for free peoples and free markets. We will defend and support them. We will sustain a balance of power that favors freedom.

She goes on to make the case for INTERVENTIONISM – praising the soldiers who put their lives on the line to secure American Freedom and then goes on to say the question of the hour is:

“Where does America stand? You see when the friends or foes alike don’t know the answer to that question, unambiguously and clearly, the world is likely to be a more dangerous and chaotic place.” There is no choice, because one of two things will happen if we don’t lead. Either no one will lead and there will be chaos, or someone will fill the vacuum who does not share our values.

I don’t agree with her there on her method. Rice subscribes to the Bush Doctrine of Preemptive strikes (the one Sarah Palin had never heard of). Rice, (like Bush, Cheney, Bush’s Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz and many Republicans) believe that wherever around the world some dictator rattles his sabers, especially against “Freedom”, America should pull out her big guns and go bang, bang!

BUT, IF the rattling is coming from a huge powerhouse like China or Russia – THEN obviously we CAN’T invade THEM, so what do we do then?

NOW there is a FUNDAMENTAL question that Americans need to answer: HOW do you deal with Russia and China?

Chinese troops. How should America treat China?

Romney and Ryan say THEY will haul China before the World Trade Organization. I’m sure that will work on so many levels. Because if you earn $200-thousand-a year, then borrow 20 million dollars from your neighbor and he’s holding your house and your cars as collateral, then of course the one thing you want to do is sue your neighbor.

Would you try to talk to him, bring him cookies, offer to watch his kids, kiss his (you know) unobtrusively of course, ’cause he’s got you over a barrel? A barrel YOU allowed HIM to put you over with your run-away conspicuous consumption which you could NOT afford? If you’re a Democrat you play nice. You hate to kiss his (you know) but you’re smart and you like your nice, big house and fancy car.

If you’re a Republican, you being the MACHO moron that you are, you tell your neighbor, the one holding your loan – “Go —- yourself!” And then sit at home and smirk as you imagine him renegotiating a new loan for you with a lower interest rate. That’s what Republicans expect. That they will step on your toes and you will be so grateful, you will still love them, because they are, well, Republicans! These people have NO concept of ACTION – REACTION. OF ACTION – CONSEQUENCE. (Naturally, they blame the consequences on someone else!)

Renewable Energy sources

Back to Rice:

We must work for an open, global economy, and pursue free and fair trade, to grow our exports and our influence abroad. If you are worried about the rise of China, just consider this — the United States has…ratified only three trade agreements in the last few years, and those were negotiated in the Bush administration. China has signed 15 free trade agreements and is in the progress of negotiating as many as 18 more. Sadly, we are abandoning the field of free and fair trade and it will come back to haunt us. AGREE

We must not allow the chance to attain energy independence to slip from our grasp. We are blessed with a gift of oil and gas resources here in North America, and we must develop them. We can develop them sensitively, we can develop them securing our environment, but we must develop them. And we have the ingenuity to develop alternatives sources of energy. AGREE

(Rice says Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild the foundation of our strength, the American economy — stimulating private sector growth and stimulating small business entrepreneurship…BALONEY!)

When the world looks at us today, they see an American government that cannot live within its means. They see an American government that continues to borrow money, that will mortgage the future of generations to come. The world knows that when a nation loses control of its finances, it eventually loses control of its destiny. That is not the America that has inspired people to follow our lead. AGREE.

Now we see here WHAT substance IS! Yes she’s got her ideology – and I don’t always agree. But by gosh she’s got some foundations in her speech that BOTH parties can use as STARTING POINTS to a productive dialog – ASSUMING they want to?

According to Rice:

You see, the essence of America, what really unites us, is not nationality or ethnicity or religion. It is an idea. And what an idea it is. That you can come from humble circumstances and you can do great things, that it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. SO TRUE!

My fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each others’ successes. SO TRUE!

Republicans applauded here – because they’ve bought into the silly dialog that Romney and the other Republicans put forward to mask their questionable financial practices – the one that says those of us who question the Romney’s finances do so because we are envious. I can’t speak for everybody, there may be some who envy the Romney’s for their lifestyle. But I’m not envious. Just practice what you preach.

But Rice could also be saying: Stop your silly mouthing that criticism of financial wrongdoing is “envy” because until you came up with that nonsense “ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each others’ successes.”

No…ours has been a belief in opportunity. And it has been a constant struggle, long and hard, up and down, to try to extend the benefits of the American dream to all. But that American ideal is indeed in danger today. There is no country, no, not even a rising China that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we do not do the hard work before us here at home.AGAIN – SO TRUE!

Children of Illegal Immigrants line up for Temporary Legal Status under President Obama’s “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” effective August 15, 2012.

On Immigration Reform:

More than at any other time in history, greatness is built on mobilizing human potential and ambition…People have come here from all over because they have believed our creed of opportunity and limitless horizons. They have come here from the world’s most impoverished nations just to make a decent wage. And they have come here from advanced societies as engineers and scientists that fuel the knowledge-based revolution in the Silicon Valley of California, in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, along Route 128 in Massachusetts, in Austin, Texas, and across this great land.

We must continue to welcome the world’s most ambitious people to be a part of us. In that way, we stay young and optimistic and determined. We need immigration laws that protect our borders, meet our economic needs, and yet show that we are a compassionate nation of immigrants.

We have been successful too because Americans have known that one’s status of birth is not a permanent condition. Americans have believed that you might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your response to your circumstances.

STOP. RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN!!!???

Americans have believed that you might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your RESPONSE to your circumstances.

Oh Condoleezza – I love you. You get it. You really, really do! (Paul Ryan would follow Rice on the podium and shoot down everything Rice says here – but we know that Ryan, like Romney, do NOT GET it. )

And your greatest ally in controlling your response to your circumstances has been a quality education. But today, today, when I can look at your zip code and I can tell whether you’re going to get a good education, can I honestly say it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going? The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are.

My mom was a teacher. I respect the profession. We need great teachers, not poor ones and not mediocre ones. We have to have high standards for our kids, because self-esteem comes from achievement, not from lax standards and false praise. And we need to give parents greater choice, particularly, particularly poor parents whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing neighborhood schools.This is the civil rights issue of our day.

And so here is the story. The HUMANISING story we cannot manufacture to seduce voters.

On a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the south where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced that even if she cannot have it hamburger at Woolworths, she can be the president of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state.

Then Tea party Boy Dahling Paul Ryan comes on…and he plays to the Party Base, spouts the juvenile nonsense you expect from HIM. I’m looking at Ryan, seeing a pretty…a very pretty empty face. Yes, he is quite good looking.

Ryan says:

“Obama Care comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country.” HUH? What has No place in a free country? Pages? Rules? Mandates – like the one Mitt Romney slapped on us here in Massachusetts for ROMNEYCARE, our state healthcare for all? Taxes? As in the Supreme Court has decided to call that MANDATE a TAX? Fees and Fines like the ones Romney RAISED on us here in Massachusetts?

According to FactCheck.org: The Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance put the fee total at $260 million a year and the corporate tax change at $174 million a year, and the independent Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said both fees and taxes totaled $740 million to $750 million a year (split about evenly between fees and corporate taxes). But Romney CAN SAY HE DID NOT RAISE TAXES…because being Romney, he came up with a devious, UNDERHAND creative accounting way to do so!

College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.

NO Mr. Ryan, college grads should NOT have to live back home in their childhood bedrooms if you and your Republican buddies had supported the Student Loan Reform bill.

New York Times headline: MAY 17, 2012, 5:33 AM

Republicans in Senate Block Bill on Student Loan Rates

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to prevent the doubling of some student loan interest rates, leaving the legislation in limbo less than two months before rates on subsidized federal loans are set to shoot upward.

Democrats arrayed college students to plead for a yes vote. The bill was blocked on party lines.

Along party lines, the Senate voted 52 to 45 on a key procedural motion, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to begin debating the measure.

The vote was the Senate Republicans’ 21st successful filibuster of a Democratic bill this Congress, which started in January 2011. Republicans have blocked consideration of President Obama’s full jobs proposal, as well as legislation repealing tax breaks for oil companies, helping local governments pay teachers and first responders, and setting a minimum tax rate for households earning more than $1 million a year.

Republicans say the measures were flawed and potentially harmful to the economic recovery.

In an awkward move Wednesday, Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly for two GOP-written budgets that would each let student loan interest rates spike in July, even as they insist they want to avert such an outcome.

Budget measures by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (NOTE WHOM) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) went down 41-58 and 42-57, respectively. Both let Stafford loan rates double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, which President Obama and Democrats have been pushing to prevent. Mitt Romney and GOP leaders say they want to extend the existing rate but differ on how to pay for it. (SEE THE hypocrisy?)

The budget votes were largely a Republican effort to embarrass President Obama and Democrats for failing to coalesce around a long-term fiscal vision.

Then Ryan deals his coup de grace. He discounts the very point that Rice made – that some people are locked into their lot.

Listen to the way we’re already spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate…

HE cannot get the point that Rice makes…that one might not be able to control one’s circumstances but yes, one can control one’s response to one’s circumstances.

Mr. Ryan if you’re at the bottom of a well, which would you prefer? For a fireman to come and throw you a rope — or look down at you, laugh and say: Dig yourself out. Even with broken fingernails! Sure a determined person CAN dig him/herself out, but it’s a lot easier with that rope – or a spoon – or a shovel!

Remember HIM?

Ryan says leadership is missing from the White House – like there was an overflow of LEADERSHIP when George W. Bush was in the White House. Unless of course we factor in Bush’s egomaniacal Vice President Dick Cheney, who lived up to his name by leading Bush around by his…well, YOU know, Dick.

Maybe I’m biased…but so far, I am with Condi.

My Dream is that: “One day…one day, politicians will speak the truth. That this nation will rise up and demand capable leaders, men and women of integrity, black, white, Hispanic, Asian and Amerindian.

I have a dream that one day, a politician’s worth will no longer be determined by how much money he can raise and spend, but by the sum of his ideas, by his or her competence and not by his/her debating ability.

I have a dream that one day politicians will be chosen, not by the color of their skin or party, but by the inclusiveness of their vision.

Yes, I have a dream that one day, on these white steps of the Capitol, we will see a Republican and a Democrat stand side by side at a table of National Interest and Unity and shout: Free at last, Free at last. Thank God – we are free at last from partisan bickering!”

Here is a “Flip-Flopping Right Wing Ideologue” (just quoting a TV pundit describing Mitt Romney) who appears to be the Republicans likely Heir…and you know, you KNOW, that many conservatives and Tea Partynistas are having a fit!

Want to know how conservatives really feel?

Rick Santorum (who’s scheduled to meet with Romney May 04) still cannot bring himself to say outright that he supports Romney, dancing around the issue in a CNN interview last night.

President George W. Bush made himself scarce when his dad, H.W. endorsed Romney. You got to hand it to W., he sticks to his guns…

So of course it’s already better…because they have a candidate they detest…and with reason, too.

Mitt Romney essentially declared VICTORY in the Republican Primary in New Hampshire last night (April 24)…even though there is still one candidate left in the race.

Imagine how you’d feel if YOU, as Newt Gingrich, watched Romney take the baton and fling it far over the finish line while you were still running!

Romney does appear to have the nomination sewn up. So he could have at least waited graciously for Gingrich to drop out or negotiated with him behind the scenes, BEFORE claiming victory. But Mitt Romney must be Mitt Romney. Muscle Gingrich out of the race. Crush the opponent with money, negative ads or a well-timed shove. Goodbye…

Gingrich is not feeling the love. He told ABC a couple of hours before Romney’s grand speech: “I think it’s a very substantial mistake for Governor Romney to be having, quote, ‘a general election’ speech…in New Hampshire. He’s the frontrunner but he’s not the nominee…I think it’s a little bit presumptuous. There’s a big difference between being the front-runner and being inevitable and I think he is mistaking the two.”

Meantime, Romney last night said people’s hopes and dreams have been diminished by false promises and weak leadership.

As opposed to George Bush who gave America STRONG leadership? So strong, in fact, the joke going around said Dick Cheney was the one running the show. The puppet master who reportedly elbowed out level-headed people like Colin Powell because Powell warned about foreign intervention: If you break it, you own it. Is Joe Biden running the show? If he is, we’re not hearing about it…so that at least is a plus for Obama!

Was there any hope MORE false than: “Mission Accomplished”? or has Romney forgotten? Is that mission accomplished – and just WHAT was the mission again, candidate Romney?

Romney said: People are working harder for less.

OK Mr. Romney, I don’t know how many maids and housekeepers YOU have at all your houses. But let’s start with some of them. Charity, it’s said, begins at home – where the heart is! According to one online report, the Romney’s 2010 tax returns show his income was nearly 22 million, but he paid only 21-thousand-dollars in taxable wages for household help (to four women at ONE of the 3 homes they had) in 2010.

According to the source, the breakdown (rounded off): $5,000 for one woman, $9,000.00 another woman, $2,000.00 – third woman and $5,000.00 – fourth woman.

START the ball rolling by paying MORE. I’m not judging you, Mr. Romney. Maybe these workers worked part-time or Mrs. Romney cleaned the house herself? We speculate because the Romney campaign declined to clarify…

All that aside, HAS ROMNEY TOLD YOU HOW he’s going to ensure that YOU work harder for MORE? Be sure he explains THAT to your satisfaction before you vote!

What else did he refer to? Single mom who feels heartbroken when she has to explain to her kids that she needs to take a second job…YES, indeed…like his wife. OH sorry, she’s NOT a single mom and I’ve already dealt with the “JOB” thing in a previous post: “Romney’s Back-Flip Flop on Work“. (You notice he did not use the term ‘work’?. He used job. Finally he gets it! But I’m sure he’ll tell you that his wife (with four helpers in one home) can sympathize with what we single moms who need 2 jobs go through.

And as for the mom and dad who never thought they’d be on food stamps — thank God Romney and Republicans DID NOT GET THEIR WAY to completely gut food stamp programs.

Just this month, Republicans pushed their BUDGET plan to CUT food stamps by $8 billion over the coming year and $34 billion over a decade. The average monthly benefit for a family of four is about $500…Democrats assailed the cuts, saying Republicans were targeting the poor while boosting the Pentagon budget above levels agreed to last summer.

Romney says he was successful in business…but he won’t also SAY he caused thousands of people to LOSE their jobs? That’s true too. Or does his Life Balance Sheet only show credits with NO debits?

He plans to get to know America’s families. He doesn’t KNOW you yet after spending much of his life in politics running for senator and governor and president? Introduce him to your gay partner and ask him why you don’t get to have the same rights he does – let him meet your illegal immigrant relative hiding in your house. Well, don’t…on second thought. Do offer him some Meat Loaf – press him to eat it. Watch him swallow. MAKE my day!!!

Do we pay less at the pump, now?

Do we? I recall gas prices were very high under George Bush, about $5.00 a gallon when people parked their gas guzzling SUV’s and you could not EVEN TRADE IT IN? And his wife still had her Cadillacs, I presume…Back when Bush was hobnobbing with Saudi royals, his dear friends who sell us the oil?

Easier to sell your home and buy a new one now?

It could have been, if Republicans had pushed for Oversight and REGULATED Wall Street and big banks. Republicans could have forced the issue. Then today we could say: They did try…let the records show. WHERE is their record?

Only in America could his dad, who grew up poor, and never graduated college, pursue his dreams and be successful. Check…

And ONLY in America could a black, black man from Africa marry a white, white woman, and have a mixed race skinny little kid with a funny name…(divorced parents, raised by grandmother). Only in America could that kid drag his way up to be president. Mate…

No Mr. Romney, we are NOT stupid, though YOU keep thinking that we are!

You will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends businesses.

Colin Powell endorsed Barak Obama because he (either/both) is/are black! That’s the argument some are using to rationalize, for themselves at least, why Powell, a republican, would endorse democrat, Barak Obama. One assumes they are using the same argument to explain why Joe Biden is backing John McCain. Because he (either/both) is/are white, I presume?

I am not inside Colin Powell’s head. He may have felt he needed to support a brother. That’s the “black” of it. He may also believe, as he said, that Obama is better able to lead the nation at this particular time, than John McCain. That is the “white” of it. Many millions of Americans believe that, too, and so does the rest of the world! It may be, even, that Powell feels a little of both. That is the “grey” of it.

I can’t argue where Colin Powell is coming from. But there are some arguments that I can make, I hope.

Let us harken back to the days when most blacks lived in the South, and were largely prevented from voting at all. In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt got 71-percent of the black vote. Let me say that again. A white president, Roosevelt, got 71 percent of the black vote! Apparently blacks didn’t run away from him because HE WAS WHITE. No, they voted…and kept on voting for Roosevelt in the next two elections. That year, no whites voted for a black man. Is there somebody, historian or not, who is willing to suggest that if a black man had indeed run for president, whites would have voted for him?

Harry Truman got 77-percent of the black vote in 1948. Blacks voted for Truman. He issued an order desegregating the armed services and an executive order setting up regulations against racial bias in federal employment. Blacks didn’t say “well he did us good, but he’s white, so chile, we shouldn’t vote for him, no way ”. Uh-uh. They voted for a white candidate. Again, that year, no whites voted for a black man. Nor did any blacks vote for a black man. And so it continued…

Dwight D. Eisenhower got 39 percent of the black vote in 1956. Richard Nixon lost narrowly to John F. Kennedy in 1960. But he got 32-percent of the black vote.

President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (outlawing segregation in public places) and his eventual Republican opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, opposed it. Johnson, a white candidate, got 94-percent of the black vote that year. It’s still a record for any presidential election!

As far as I know JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and both Bushes were/are all white. Yes? I never once heard pollsters report that blacks in Virginia or Kentucky or New York or Florida responded that they wouldn’t vote for any of these presidents, because they were not black. I have however heard this being said concerning Obama, with reference being made to the “Bradley Factor.” I have never heard of any similar factor in play, when any of the above presidents were running for office.

I’ve come to the conclusion that blacks are very sophisticated, sane and savvy political beings who have historically voted, not based on skin color, since they voted for whites for more than a hundred years, (there was nothing preventing them from staying home and refusing to vote) but in self-interest. They vote for those who they see will advance their cause. Clinton. Johnson. Roosevelt.

Therefore, I think it is disingenuously audacious for some people to dump their baggage on blacks and imply that blacks are voting for Obama because he is black. Powell is supporting Obama because he’s black! Blacks would support a KKK candidate like David Duke, if he was black. Supposing Obama was running against Condoleezza Rice. Would blacks have to vote for Rice, because she’s blacker? (According to me!)

Have you heard black republicans say they won’t vote for McCain because he is white? Please let me know..? Or are they really secretly planning on voting for Obama anyway, “because he’s black?” Then let’s commend their brotherhoodness, and channel this synergy into new directions. Rich blacks, we need you in the ghettos helping poor blacks. This Brimming Brotherhood of Blackness (or African-Americanness) should be available year round!

Blacks have also consistently voted for white senators, representatives, mayors and governors. Not a one groused (at least, not to the press!) that the reason all these politicians consistently got so many white votes were simply because they/either/all were white.

Blacks are smart enough to realize that there have been instances where whites looked at both sides and decided that they preferred the black candidate to the white candidate. And if we are confident in the ability of whites to make that judgment, then so should we be in the ability of blacks to make a similar judgment. Otherwise, we are buying into the cynicism of John McCain.

Black voters can look at many candidates and say, “that Jesse Jackson…I don’t think so. I will go with the white guy” (Dukakis/Mondale). Blacks similarly think that whites can also say “that John McCain, I don’t think so, I prefer the other guy — black, pink, green or yellow“.

So enough of these racist arguments! Otherwise, the discourse begs more questions. Did the four past Secretaries of State (whom McCain says endorsed him) only do so because he/they/either/all…are white? Could it also be that they simply like McCain’s message more than they like Obama’s? Or is it a little of both?

Hello, Colin Powell…you do know where the Weapons of Mass Destruction are buried! I love republicans! Please readers, disregard every article that I’ve ever posted in my blog…prior to this Powell-induced GOP love fest!

Did you hear what Powell said about John McCain, his friend, colleague and fellow veteran whom he’s known for 25 years? The Bush White House insider/outsider appeared on NBC’S Meet The Press, Sunday (October 19).

And he endorsed democrat Barack Obama!

“It isn’t easy for me to disappoint Senator McCain…and I regret that. But I strongly believe that at this point in America’s history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with some changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue, basically, the policies that we have been following in recent years. I think we need a transformational figure. I need, think we need, a president who is a generational change. And that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama. Not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain”.

Translation: (mine) John McCain is much too similar to George Bush. We need a different direction, not a president who, although he may not be George Bush, is SO similar policy-wise, THAT HE WILL SIMPLY CONTINUE THE POLICIES OF GEORGE BUSH…and Dick Cheney!

When it comes to Obama, Powell says he’s been watching the democratic candidate over the last six of seven weeks…”as both of them have really taken a final exam with respect to this economic crisis that we are in and coming out of the conventions. And I must say that I’ve gotten a good measure of both.

In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn’t have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin.

She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.

On the Obama side, I watched Mr. Obama and I watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this and picking a vice president that, I think, is ready to be president on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing every day, but showing intellectual vigor.

I think that he has a, a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well. I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower.

Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines, ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values”.

Powell was especially critical of the negative tone of McCain’s campaign. But he’s also unhappy with the direction in which the Republican Party is heading. He says the GOP “has moved more to the right than I would like to see it.”

According to Powell, he has been “disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign.

But Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robo-calls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate.

Now, I understand what politics is all about. I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for.

And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign and they trouble me. And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking at in a McCain administrationn.

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He’s a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists’. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Powell says that point was underscored when he say a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. One was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. He says “she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old.”

Powell says the headstone had a Crescent and a Star of the Islamic faith. The dead soldier, Kareem Rashid Sultan Khan, was an American, who was born in New Jersey. Powell says Khan “was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

So, when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career, we’ve got two individuals, either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time?

And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities, and we have to take that into account,as well as his substance, he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world–onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama”.

Thank you, Colin Powell, Thank you! Now here’s a republican that even I, can LOVE!